A few from Fuji's Area

[NannyFerret]

The female mallard wouldn't let the male mallard out of her sight and kept chirping to him to follow her.
It looked like the male had a dodgy eye or his thord eyelid was permanently down.
It was as if she was taking care of him.

I watched them for ages thinking that they were no different to maternal humans in looking after their mates or young ones.

They were so fascinating.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Nikon D3200 + 55-200 lens

[Guest]

A good set Tina and nice story about the mallards.

[Kobione]

Very nice set, Nanny, nice to see more bird life.

[FUJI]

These are great......how did you get so lose to that Chaffinch?...........as for the other birds......I almost know them all.....or at least.....they all know me.......I stand at that spot for ages with my camera some days.

If you were there yesterday afternoon, when that Emirates Plane went over, you weren't very far from me........I had stopped on the other side of the brook, to shoot a pigeon sunning itself on a tree stump very close, to where you must have been standing......as I was taking the shots the plane flew over, so I reacted very quickly to get my shot of that.

I was on one of my fairly regular hour- long walks with a neighbour and mate of mine, he became impatient as I was shooting, so I walked away quickly to catch up with him.....otherwise we may have spotted each other.

Next time eh?........send me a PM if you are bussing over into civilization again ;-)

FUJI

[annie]

lovely little set nanny. love the chaffinch. usually when we go fishing the chaffinch's come down and scavenge for any little bait morsels dropped. 

[Barbara]

Great Shots Tina,

[FUJI]

Tina...this untouched, straight out of camera shot shows just how close we must have been......look in the soft BG and you will see the timbers lining the edge of the pool where your duck and Moorhen were ...the tree stump on which the pigeon is resting is quite close to the tree with your Jackdaw...it is probably one of those that steal the suet balls whole from my front-garden feeder?

 

I took three shots of the pigeon, creeping closer each time....it was at that point the very loud,very low Emirates BOEING 777 flew over....had I not been hurried on by my walking companion I might have spotted you............unless you were hiding of course?

 

Best viewd LARGE....click on Pic:

 

FUJI

 

[NannyFerret]

We were walking round the side of the lake to get to the other side when I got the Emirates shot. It was very boggy there.

I got this shot from this side where all the reeds are.

Sat there for a while before taking a slow walk up to the church where I got a couple of flower shots.

We have been a bit up and down health wise the last few weeks so we only decide on the morning where we will go or get the first bus that comes,and then decide lol.  but we were looking out for you on our way around and will do when we are in that area again.

 

It was a nice day wasn't it? We stayed 2 or 3 hours and then went home to let the ferrets out to play.

 

I forgot to say that the little chaffinch has growths on his feet and has often been to see us when we aare there with our sandwich,  He flies ok so his bad leg doesn't seem to hold him back at.

I have a shot of him from last year or the year before too, so it seems that he has survived the winter ok.

[JohnP]

Lovely set Tina!

 

It's a shame the Chaffinch has a disease called Bumblefoot.

 

http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/archive/showphoto.php/photo/80643

[NannyFerret]

Lovely set Tina!

 

It's a shame the Chaffinch has a disease called Bumblefoot.

 

http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/archive/showphoto.php/photo/80643

Thanks, Everyone.

 

I was trying to think what the  Chaffinches problem was John.

I knew that rats and other small animals can get Bumblefoot, but didn't know that birds also got it. 

[JohnP]

Tina... from what I can make out Bumblefoot is a soil borne disease... a fungus. Chaffinches are primarily ground feeders and I guess that makes them more susceptible to contracting Bumblefoot than many other birds. I understand it can also be seen on poultry. I'm no expert so if anyone knows different please feel free to correct me.

[NannyFerret]

If it is the same bird that we have seen before, the disease has thinned on it's foot but traveled up it's leg.

He was flying into the tree Ok  and walking on it, so at least he is surviving and able to get food.